Fire occurs during initial testing of 300-MW Victorian Big Battery

There has been a fire incident during initial testing at the 300-MW/450-MWh Victorian Big Battery project in Australia being delivered by Neoen SA (EPA:NEOEN), the French renewable power producer confirmed on the project’s website today.

A fire occurred at 1000-1015 local time on Friday within one of the Tesla Megapacks at the facility.

The Victorian Big Battery is located next to AusNet Services’ existing Moorabool Terminal Station near Geelong and will consist of 210 Megapacks of electric car maker Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA).

No one was injured and the site had been disconnected from the grid, Neoen said, adding that together with Tesla it was working with emergency services on site to manage the situation.

Fire Rescue Victoria said that crews were working to contain the fire at a 13-tonne lithium battery in a shipping container and to stop it from spreading to nearby batteries.

The Victorian Big Battery is touted as one of the largest facilities of its kind globally. In early July, it was announced that Neoen had reached the halfway mark in the construction of the 300-MW/450-MWh system.

The French company reached financial close on the Victorian Big Battery project in February. A grid services contract is in place with the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) for around 250 MW of the new system’s capacity.

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